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LUM 92A

Barton interview w/
Dewey Barton
April 18, 1973 SLW--tvpist

B: This is April 18. 1973. I am Lew Barton recording for the Doris Duke

American Indian Oral History Program. Today I am in the office of Mr-

Dewey Locklear, is that right? Of LRDA. Mr- Locklear, what do those initials

mean?

L: Well. LRDA is the call letters for Tumbee Regional Development Association-

And 0 .my name is Dewev Locklear, my iob title here is Operations

Officer, and or really Deputy Director of the agency.

B: Right.

L: I've been with the agency two years approximately. I worked for a year as

director of the talent search component of LRDA, which is a program funded

by the Office of Education.

B: Right.

L: And we werk with the high school students in eelthtig aid for them to at-

tend college and to further their education. After my first year in the

agency in that capacity I was moved to this job which is .-. I mentioned

Operations Officer. I've been working here approximately a vear.

B: Well, Mr. Locklear, we know that LRDA is recognized among our people, the

Indians- of this area, especially as one of the most vital organizations

going and we got acquainted with your program; uh, with vour organization

through its work in sponsoring Lumbee Homecoming Day.

L: Right.

B: And these were whopping successes, and uh, I understand that LRDA works

through all the other organizations and sort of coordinates all Indian

organizations or all organizations in this area. Is that right?

2

LUM. 92A.

L: Well, LRDA has alot of well, four or five different programs that we are

operating. And being involved in these we are .-. we touch alot of people.

We have affiliation with alot of people in the different various communities

and their activities.

B: And you're funded through the Office of Economic Opportunity?

L: We have been ..-our ... we have an economic development grant, and this is

... where our administrative monies have been coming from.

B: Right.

L: Uh, from the Office of Economic Opportunity. We do have, however, other

program sources of monies. This would be the Department of Labor forour

NYC program, and uh, the Department of Health, Education and WElfare for

our educational programs. This being the talent search component which I

mentioned and the Adult Basic Education program.

B: Right.

L: Now Lumbee Regional Development Association of which we are speaking is a

private, non-profit organization and the agency was chartered by the state

of North Carolina in 1968 and we have as our goal to develop the ability to

analyze and to develop solutions for the health and educational economic

and general welfare problems in the area among the Lumbee Indians- We feel

that the Indians have long since practiced the policy of self-determination.

However, in the midst of plenty, and in a time of progress. many of our

people have not been touched by this.

B: Right.

L: We feel that LRDA can serve as a vehicle that these people might learn what

programs are available and what services are available that they can participate

and maybe find a solution to their problem. We- we like to think that this

is our goal; as the overall eoal of the agency.

B: Yes, sir.

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LUM 92A

B: About how old is T.RDA?

L: Well, the apencv itself was chartered in 1968, but we, we really didn't get

into the -.. any funds until 1970- And that was a small grant from the

Ford Foundation. And uh, well, maybe that was in Z '68 we pot the grant

from the Fond Foundation, but 1970 and '71 is when we really began to pet

some monies from the Deaprtment of HEW, and Department of Labor and Of-

fice of Economic Opportunity. So that we've really grown from 1971 to our

present size and status.

B: I see. Well, let's talk a bit farther about you. This is all interesting and

I hate to cut in at this point but I would like to know a little bit more

about you, your family, uh, are you married?

L: Uh, Mr. Barton, yes, I am. I've been married five years. I grew up in the

county here about twenty miles from the site that we're located at now,

working here. I went to 1i high school at Fairgrove High School and grammar

school also. Fairgrove High School near Fairmont, North Carolina; it's about

three miles from Fairmont. Upon graduation I attended Pembroke State

University here in Pembroke and I graduated from Pembroke State University

in 1970 with a B.S. in mathematics.

B: Uh. huh- Who were your parents?

L: My parents are Vinny Locklear and Dolly Locklear of Fairmont, near Fairmont.

B: Are thev still living?

L: Mv father is deceased but my mother is still living.

B* I see. Who did you marry?

L: My wife is Mary Elizabeth Strickland before she changed her name and she is

from Roland. North Carolina which is about eight miles from my home.

B: That's interesting. Did you think when you were coming along in high school,

college, I mean, I know you appreciate the opportunity of working with your

own people. I happen to know this personally and in your own area, but

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LUM 92A

did you think you would have this opportunity when you were coming along?

L: I didn't have nay idea of this particular role at that time in I'd

say in high school and through college and going into college I had the

idea of becoming a teacher, but in my junior year I changed my mind and

decided that I would go into industry and work. And I tried that for a

few months in the industry, and the opportunity came with LRDA to work

with one of the programs here, and I thought that too challenging and, to

turn down. So here I am.

B: Great, I'm glad ... I'm glad for LRDA and for all of us that you're here.

I didn't ask you about how many children you have.

L: I've got one little boy, age three.

BI He's great, he's right here now. Uh, what's his name?

L: His name is Brian, and he's three years old. Quite a character.

B: Great little fella. he's been talking with me.

L: We have a Senior Citizens program going and his baby-sitter is a member of

the Senior Citizens Club and today I'm keeping him with me since they are

in a meeting. I have him here at the office with me.

B: That's good. He'll be learning the ropes at an early age, won't he?

Do you see any difficulties in being funded under the present administration?

This may sound like a loaded question. but it isn't meant to be. I'm

just wondering if any funds have been endangered by this, the President's ...

L: Well, Mr. Barton. as you probably know, the Office of Economic Opportunity

is in the phase or in the process of being dismantled. So as I mentioned

we do have a __ grant.

B: Right.

L: However, we do have grants from other funding sources as I mentioned, the

Department of Labor and Department of Health. Education and WElfare. and we

feel that we will be able to continue in thise areas.

5

B; You will be able to survive?

L: Right. We're very hopeful that we will be able to continue.

B: Well, I certainly hope so, too because this organization's been a great

blessing to this community and to its people. About how many programs do

you have going?

L: Well, we operate ... five different programs, from different funding sources.

We have the, as I mentioned the Economic Development Program, and maybe I could

go into these a little bit. Each one of them as I name them.

B: That would be fine.

L: And tell you just a little bit about them. The Economic Development Program

which I mentioned earlier is funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity.

In this program we've been addressing ourselves to the problems facing rural

communities, which ... in, you know, the situation in our county, is very

rural. And we've been trying to seek solutions to the problems facing

these rural communities and in developing the economy of the poor Indian

poeple. Many of them have been farmers and the farm situation is such that

farms are being consolidated and larger farms are evolving and many of the

people are being left out. We work in the areas of business development;_

we try to advise and conduct seminars to, for better management practices

for people who are in the small businesses; we try to assist them .in securigg

loans to expand their businesses; another component of the Economic De-

velopment is that we provide referrals to existing job situations and iob

sites for people who are interested-in seeking employment maybe in the

factory level or the business or whatever. We try to find positions avail-

able and refer them to these. We also try to refer people to ... the

needy to existing agencies in the county so that they can have their needs

met. Those are briefly some of the things we're doing in the Economic

Development program. We have another program which I mentioned earlier
J

6

LUM 92A

the Adult Basic Education Program, which we're quite proud of the accom-

plishments of this program. We feel that it touches many of our people,

and this program is again funded from the Office of Education, and we

conduct six classes, in dif--, six different centers where we have classes

twice per week,and the Adult Basic Education project has as its participants

people from the ages of I think seventeen throu seventy-six. These people

who decide that they need to further their education, and they decide that

this is a good method of doing it. By attending night classes.

B: This is a broad range, isn't it?

L: It's very broad range. We don't have ... we don't specifically go to

the three R's: we have civics included, uh, consumer education included in

our classes, along with the mechanics of reading, writing and simple

arithmetic. We ...

B: Have you any idea about how prevelant, well, I don't like to say illiteracy,

but I guess that's about the only word available, people who are not able to

read and write, who were never ...

L: Well, Mr. Barton, the recent ... a recent survey that I read and right now

I don't remember the source, but it had given the figure as 25% of our

people are functionally illiterate.

B: Um, huh, that's tragic, isn't it?

L: That's very tragic situation and we feel that if, there should be programs

to deal with this situation. We hope that our ABE program is attempting

to delve into this somewhat. If I might just get off on just one tangent

1 for a minute ...

B: Right.

L: We have a I have a note here in front of me, or a series of notes that

are from talking to another staff member who has just visited a couple

of the ABE centers this week. And he states here that it is quite a thrill

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LUM 92A

for him to see people concerned about whether they can make a pretty

"s" or pretty "t". People it's quite astonishing that many of our people

have never had the opportunity to even go to the first grade and pick

up the mechanics of the first grade and he really goes into the thing

here of ... of how emotional he becomes by watching these people as

they strive to write their name or to, for the first time, you see.

B: Uh, huh.
here
L: And .... he has some good comments/and I wanted to mention that that we

have a note here that there was one person in the class who went from zero

to sixth grade level in six months. That's as far as reading is concerned.

B: That's great.

L: And uh, this person had never been able to read her Bible before. Being

very religious she considers this a beautiful thing now that she can read

her Bible.

B: It certainly is.

L: But the, the situation with the Adult Basic Education is such that we have

the teaching on an individual basis. We just don't lecture; we teach

the people on an individual basis and let each one progress at his own

speed and he studies the things that he's interested in. We're quite

proud of the program; we feel like it's being very effective; we're
the
working with approximately two hundred students in/six centers.

B: How many people do you have in your entire staff here?

L: There's ... full and part-time, there's fifty people in all the pro-

grams. Going on from the Adult Basic Education program we have the

Neighborhood Youth Corps program where we have the director and two

counselors plus some NYC workers who help out in the office. But we have

an in-school program and an out-of-school program. And again I mention

that tiis-iscfunded from the Department of Labor and we give, we try to

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LUM 92A

give meaningful work experience to many of the people, young people who

have either dropped out of school or who need some kind of assistance

to continue school. And uh, the Lumbee Outreach Talent Search Project

as I mentioned earlier has a ... its objective is to identify young
a
people at the secondary level who aspire to go to/post-secondary insti-

tution either a trade school or at the college level. We seek to locate

financial resources and to provide guidance to them in their endeavors.

The other program would be we have a VISTA component which we're quite

proud of also. We have, I think, I'm not sure now, but I believe it's

the only all-Indian locally recruited VISTA volunteer project in the

country. And I'm, I'm not definitely positive on that but I believe so.

Anyhow here in the east. So that ... these people have volunteered to

work in their own communities to try to help alleviate some of the

situations that exist there. At present-we're, working with the senior

citizens. WE have among the Indian people approximately twelve to

fourteen hundred people who are senior citizens. And we haven't invol-

ved them in any kinds of programs as of yet so that we feel that the

VISTA component is a good way for us to do this. And we have developed

at this time eight local senior citizens clubs in the different tar-

get communities, and these people are very enthusiastic and very active

and interested in becoming a part of helping in their community. So
And
those would be the programs right now that we have in existence./ I hope

that's given you just a little bit of more insight to, into the ...

B: Well, it certainly has, and it sounds like a great lineup to me. I talked

to some of those people who are taking adult education classes by the

way and made a report ot the paper for the paper and they were very enthu-

siastic, and they said that they could help; they were ...

L: I guess it's a new world, you know

9

LUM 92A

B: Right. A new world had opened up for some of them.

L: I really ... I talked to several of them and there was one man in

particular that comes to mind this time and he mentioned to me that

he had driven to Lumberton from Fayetteville which is a distance of forty

miles and he was looking for a particular building. And so he thought,

"weli, I'll stop at a service station and ask somebody where this building's

at." Then he thought to himself, "Well, I can read now, I won't have to

do that; I'll just look at the sign on the building."

B: Right.

L: So that I, I imagine that must be a tremendous feeling for a person who

has not been able to read or who has not been able to write his name

to acquire that knowledge. I think that must be a wonderful feeling.

B: And the building you now occupy, that you are occupying is the

building which was once the Carolina Inn?
old here
L: Right. This was once the/Carolina Inn Hotel/in Pembroke, and we have

offices downstairs and upstairs.

B: Uh, huh. You have plenty of space?

L: Well, we're .... we occupy just about all of the rooms, but, you know,

we always could use more conference space or meeting space or whatever, but

we do very well.

B: That's good. I know building space is very scarce now.

L: Very scarce and very expensive, too.

B: Right. You're certainly fortunate there. Do you have ... do you envision

any new programs or any expansion?

L: Well, uh, we hope to expand the VISTA project right now, Mr. Barton, and

we are not right now ... in the coming months I think August is the month

we're talking about. We hope to increase taht maybe by seven to ten more

VISTA volunteers. We've found this is an, a very effective way of reaching

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LUM 92A

our people because these people being locally recruited they know about

their communities and they have, they know about some of the prob-

lems existing, and we have several proposals in mind and I think that

we have developed one at the present time to work with the local educational

agency, the Robeson County Board of Education, in co-sponsoring a

project to tutor the children at home who need to improve their proficiency.

And we would like to get involved in that aspect of it.

B: I would like to ask you a question which if you don't won't to answer it

I would feel certain to understand. But we have had some unrest among the

Indians recently and the American Indian movement people coming in; the

movement growing in the county itself. Uh, you haven't had any discontent